Seeing the Lights

OK, so the last picture was a bit digitally enhanced, but it is impossible to photograph the Northern Lights unless you've got the right equipment and we really did see them. We went to the late show which featured a married couple of very versatile musicians. Their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody on 15 different instruments has to be seen and heard to be believed. When we got back to the cabin I went out on to the balcony and there was quite a lot of clear sky. It seemed worth a look on deck so out came the Arctic gear and up we went.

The top deck at the front of the ship had been roped off because of the driving wind and the slippery decking which was covered in hail and snow. Surprisingly no one had roped off the ladder to the golf nets which are on the highest accessible part of the ship. Up we went again to join a few other intrepid souls who had had the same idea. Conditions were the exact opposite of balmy but the golf nets offered some shelter from the wind and the imitation grass flooring gave us something not to slip on.

Before this holiday I thought that the Northern Lights were a display that lasted for a quite a while as long as they weren't obscured by clouds. Now I've learned that they are more commonly a series of events that appear on a random time scale. We hadn't been looking for long before we started to see faint green clouds come and go. As we waited and watched some some of the clouds expanded to fill the sky overhead becoming greener as they broke into streaks before they gradually faded away. Sometimes the streaks twisted and curled. There were long periods when nothing happened or when the green patches were barely visible against the black sky but then there would be another spectacular display as a larger shower of the suns plasma hit the atmosphere.

After about three quarters of an hour the cold and the wind got the better of us and we picked our way carefully down the ladder and back to our cabin. Game over, that's another one off the bucket list.

Dave

PS I've just read the bit about the musical duo again and it sounds a bit critical which wasn't intended. They were very good and very enjoyable – it's just that they're not the sort of act that you often see these days in mainstream entertainment. This highlights the serious social service that the cruise lines provide to the entertainment industry offering employment to some of its more “difficult to place” artists. Another example is our singer who suffers badly from what I believe is called Methuselah disease. His photograph was pinned up on the notice board at the start of the cruise and we saw him the other night. The rate at which he is ageing is terrifying.